Dec. 4, 2012

Written by

Dan Carpenter

During the very week that he astonished us with a public apology for dismissing his critics as "bellyachers," Gov. Mitch Daniels was back in form with a full-throated contribution to the chorus of "Puttin' Down the Ritz."

Addressing a Washington meeting of his fellow self-anointed education reformers, the man hailed widely for his grown-up approach to politics indulged in an outright sandbox tantrum over Glenda Ritz's Nov. 6 victory over State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett.

A total shock it was not. Daniels is accustomed to winning, at the electoral and policy levels; and his penchant for blowing off Democrats, environmentalists, unions and others who question his agenda is manifest.

It was disheartening, nonetheless, to hear the head of our state descend to the company of election deniers.

I realize the anti-union, pro-privatization forces for which Daniels and Bennett were national heroes suffered a chastening setback when a school library specialist with a fraction of their cash sailed home against a Republican tide. But to assert -- without bothering with substantiation -- that she won by cheating rather than popular will is an offense to the entire electorate, pro- and anti-Ritz.

Yes, it's perfectly plausible that some teachers promoted one of their own on school computers during work time. It's imaginable state employees do the same for and against their bosses during election season. And talking down Bennett during conversations with parents? That, too, would be human nature, and in keeping with the nature of Bennett's relationship with the public schools and unionized teachers.

But a conspiracy to break the law and corrupt the democratic process, as Daniels characterized it in his sermon to the choir last week? Please.

I can't help envisioning what Daniels' longtime mentor would have done with this defeat.

U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, even more spoiled than Daniels by winning, wished his adversary Richard Mourdock well but admonished him to ease off on his adversarial posture and reach across the aisle. Had he been in his protégé's shoes today, he surely would have urged the same spirit of cooperation from his party toward the minority party school chief -- while not letting her forget the legislative support for many of the reforms she ran against. Then, a wave of magnimity on which to ride to the Purdue University presidency while the fellowship found work for his man Tony.

Instead, Hoosiers get the highest of imprimaturs for "We wuz robbed." How that is grown-up governance, and how that's going to serve Indiana children over the coming difficult years, is beyond me. But then, I'm one of the dupes who voted for Ritz.